Triple-Whammy Part 1

First off, I would like to thank Suite 101 for being understanding of the situation and allowing me an extension. I really appreciate it.

To make up for lost time, I'll have two articles up this month. OK, technically it will just be one two-part article, but I hope you guys can overlook that. This first article will be posted as soon as I finish typing it in order to make up for September. The next should be up within the next couple of days. So be sure to check back soon.

Now, to get down to business.

Before I was so rudely interrupted by my own dog, the glory hound, I was talking about "red Rottweilers" and why they should be avoided. To refresh you memory, the odds of finding a Rottweiler with a red coat are so astronomically huge that, more than likely, most of the dogs advertised as "red Rotties" are probably nothing more than Rottie-mixes. And also, because of the extreme inbreeding it would take to produce one, any real, purebred red Rottweiler would probably be a walking bag of genetic problems (that is of course if the dog isn't so severely dysplastic that he can't be a "walking" bag of anything).

Now, for these next two articles, I would like to look at three things which, like the red coat, are considered faults or disqualifications by the Rottweiler standard: white spots, all black coats, and long coats. Also, as with the red coat, these three traits might be used by people of ill repute to create a market for their dogs.

The difference between these three faults and the "red Rotties" is that these faults actually do occur in the true Rottweiler population. Therefore, a dog with one of these traits could actually be purebred.

However, like the "reds", they should not be considered "rare." They are not some unique type of Rottie. And they are not, as some breeders would have you believe, the type of Rotties that are bred in Russia, South Africa, Australia, England, or even the magical Land of Oz for that matter. They are simply pet quality dogs. And while they can make excellent pets or working dogs, they shouldn't advertised as something rare and they should not be bred for a profit.

The first of the three faults we'll look at is the white spot.

When you look at the Rottweiler's Swiss cousins, one of the first things you'll probably notice is the amount of white in their coats. Well, the Rottweiler shares the same ancestors as the Swiss breeds (i.e., the mastiff-like dogs that drove Roman cattle over the Alps), so every once in a while, a pup is born with a bit of white on him, too. Usually, the white is limited to a small spot on the chest. Sometimes, if the spot is small enough, it will fade out as the pup matures. One of Chelsea's brothers had a fading spot like that. Other times, it's there to stay.

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